Business Confidence Takes Another Blow
Business confidence has suffered another setback, as indicated by a National Association of Business Economists report of cuts in its member forecasts for Q4 GDP. The news comes as a number of other comments…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Media Digest (10/24/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYTime, FT, Bloomberg
Obama to announce aid for student and home loans. Home loan proposals will include refinancing for underwater mortgages. (Reuters) EU leaders press Italy for more austerity measures. (Reuters) China’s October PMI is moderately higher.…
Flash: Eurozone PMI Hits Lows, Back to Recession Levels
nationsonline.orgAusterity, unemployment and low business confidence have pushed eurozone manufacturing levels to mid-recession lows. Research firm Markit reports: ? Flash Eurozone PMI Composite Output Index at 47.2 (49.1 in September). Lowest since July 2009. ?…
Nine Reasons The Economy Will Soar By 2020
No one can predict the future with absolute certainty but many make educated projections. 24/7 Wall St. has reviewed long-term economic forecasts issued by the government, financial analysts, and academics. While they are different…
Key Developments Driving The Financial World Today (10/22/2011) Google Buy Yahoo, T-Mobile In Trouble, Kodak Battle To Survive
The Obama Administration will release a plan on Monday to help people with underwater mortgages and good credit to get new refinanced home loans at present rates which are the lowest in decades. This…
Video On The Web: Nothing Matters But YouTube
YouTube has become more and more each month, the Facebook of online video. The Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) site’s inventory of content which can be used to support video advertising dwarfs that on the balance of the…
Hard Hit States Have Unemployment Rise
Unemployment continued to gnaw at some of the most economically troubled regions of the US. States with statistically significant employment changes from August 2011 to September 2011, seasonally adjusted --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | August | September…
GE Bounces Back
GE (NYSE: GE) posted earnings that were above average. Jeff Immelt may want to step down from his positions as Obama’s adviser and spend all of his time at the conglomerate to keep GE’s…
EU Wants to Ban Sovereign Debt Ratings
nationsonline.orgIt may be an affront to free speech, or just a plan that is totally unrealistic, but the EU wants to ban credit ratings of the sovereign debt of its most troubled nations. “We…
Two Thousand Americans Made Over $10 Million Last Year
More than 2,00o Americans made in excess of $10 million last year. Most of them probably earned it, perhaps at investment banks or hedge funds. Some may be rich farmers who paid themselves well…
The Myth of Infrastructure Repair
Infrastructure repair data often misleads, and this makes the argument about how government should spend money on upgrading America’s roads and bridges complicated and often biased. Transportation for America has come out with another…
Ford’s UAW Contract and Weak Consumer Spending
Ford’s (NYSE: F) new UAW contract is good news for the auto company’s financial future but bad news for workers, who will have a stagnant standard of living. It is another example of how…
Microsoft and Good News for the Corporate Economy
Some economists argue that while businesses have recovered a great deal from the recession, American workers have not. There is some proof of that in Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) latest quarterly results. Analysts would argue…
Media Digest (10/21/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Slow sales of Windows keeps Microsoft’ s (NASDAQ: MSFT) revenue low. (Reuters) The Murdoch family will face voters angered about the UK paper hacking scandal at today’s annual meeting. (Reuters) Greece’s parliament votes for…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (10/20/2011) UBS Cuts, Groupon IPO
Updated throughout the day Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) has asked potential buyers to sign highly restrictive non-disclosure agreements (Reuters) Groupon has cut the size of its IPO (WSJ) Hedge fund SAC faces another government probe…
Why Doesn’t Yahoo! Sell Its Own Asian Assets?
Why will Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) not sell its own Asian assets and run its core business with an additional $10 billion from the proceeds from those sales on its balance sheet? The process to bid…
Samsung Boasts of Higher Sales Than iPhone’s
Management at Samsung recently boasted that it sold 20 million handsets in the past quarter, compared with Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) 17 million iPhone sales, the Wall Street Journal reports. The boast does not mean…
Holiday Sales Forecasts Worsen
ChartThe Nation Retail Federation expects holiday sales to rise 2.8% to $466 billion this year. That estimate has already been questioned as unemployment stays above 9% and discretionary income remains stagnant. Another indication that this holiday…
Not Much for Social Security Recipients
Social Security recipients, 55 million strong, will get a 3.6% cost of living increase next year. There has not been a cost of living increase from the fund in three years. This one is…
America’s Most Overpaid CEOs
It’s that time of year again, when proxies are released and many business publications run lists of the highest paid CEOs at America’s large public companies. The compensation figures are extraordinarily high, sometimes ranging…